Felix the Devil 2

Not only does the devil have the best tunes but he usually has the coolest cohorts as well, from Capcom's Dante to Hellboy himself. Felix the Devil is unlikely to join the same ranks of the damnably debonair, for the simple fact that he looks like a small child out on a trick-or-treat sweetie grab. Slovakian developer Inlogic probably think he's terribly cute, but you'll probably have other ideas.

Of course, if you were going to criticise platform games based on whether their lead characters were sufficiently trendy you'd have to include Super Mario Bros in the broadside. Not that this has very much in common with Nintendo's classics, as rather than zipping along purely horizontally scrolling levels you're tasked with exploring a more complex set of trap-filled dungeons and pirate ships.

The plot seems to involve Felix giving up his evil ways and escaping from hell and the business ethics of Lucifer himself. Presumably that all happened in the first Felix the Devil, for this game opens with your horned pal trapped on Captain Drake's island.

Unsurprisingly, this turns out not to be a crossover with Uncharted on the PlayStation 3 but instead an excuse to jump on the Pirates of the Caribbean bandwagon – with the later stages of the game in particular filled with all sorts of Cap'n Jack stand-ins.

Complex narrative and award winning character design are not the game's forte then, but what it does get right are the controls. They're precise, uncomplicated and allow just the right amount of after-touch when in the air. And yet despite this there's relatively little jumping on heads to be done, with Felix's main weapon being a trademark firey pitchfork.

As long as you see them coming, though, most enemies don't put up much of a fight and the real difficulty in the game is navigating the range of traps secreted around each level, from spear-encrusted spikes that pop up from the ground to flame-spitting gargoyles and yo-yoing spiders. In other words the platform gaming world's usual suspects.

Completing each level involves finding a colour coded key, usually hidden in the most awkward to reach corner of the level and requiring you to turn on lifts by finding the appropriate levers, make use of mysterious updrafts of air, and use bad guys' heads as impromptu trampolines.

Your only ally in all this is a wizard named Godrick, who parcels out the occasional hint and helps to teach you a few magic spells along the way.

The ability to move backwards and forwards between different levels is an unexpected one, which lends the game an almost Castlevania style feel. But even with the new magic spells and changing backdrops the gameplay never changes sufficiently to maintain your interest. Which is a shame, because Felix the Devil 2 gets an awful lot right. The devil, however, is in the details.

Felix the Devil 2

Above average compared to most mobile platformers, but you'll be as bored as hell pretty quickly
Score
Roger  Hargreaves
Roger Hargreaves
After being picked last for PE one too many times, Roger vowed to eschew all physical activities and exist only as a being of pure intellect. However, the thought of a lifetime without video games inspired him to give up and create for himself a new robot body capable of wielding a joystick – as well as the keyboard necessary to write for both Pocket Gamer and Teletext's GameCentral.